Flashback CD Review #102 - Doro - Warrior Soul

This review was originally written for the Rock Is Life.com website in 2006.

Doro
Warrior Soul
Locomotive Records - 2006
http://www.doropesch.com

What's The 4-1-1?

The German metal queen returns to the metal scene with her first full length studio album since Fight in 2000. The album was reportedly inspired by Doro's first movie role in the film Anuk - The Warrior's Way.

Genre

Hard Rock / Heavy Metal

The Good

If you have listened to Doro before, you can pretty much bet you'll get a CD full of some hard driving rock songs, a few mid tempo rockers and a couple of timely power ballads. This may sound like I'm saying there's a formula to the album, but you'd be wrong.

The challenge is coming up with great songs whatever the style of the track. I'm happy to report that Doro has really outdone herself this time.

The album opens with a solid mid tempo rocker "You're My Family" and continues for the next four songs keeping up the driving rock sound.

The ballads "Heaven I See" and "Shine On" are pretty good. Maybe not as immediately classic as some of Doro's other ballads from past albums, but they stand on their own just fine.

One of the things I always enjoy is the songs Doro sings in German. This time around she does it 1 1/2 times. "In Liebe Und Freundschaft" is done completely in German and "Ungebrochen" is a 97 second song done half in English. Both songs are excellent. The German language songs are usually so good, I don't even bother finding out what the translation is because they sound so wonderful as initially constructed.

The standout songs on Warrior Soul are the metal anthems "My Majesty" and "Thunderspell". I also enjoyed "Haunted Heart" and "Strangers Yesterday".

Another fact deserving of attention is that Doro's vocals sound especially fantastic here. While the music is not shortchanged at all, this CD is definitely geared towards letting Doro's voice shine through loud and proud.

The Bad

There's nothing wrong with any of the songs on the album. I would've preferred being able to hear the two bonus tracks on the limited edition version of the album for a fuller review though.

The Verdict

I'm quite a big fan of Doro. I like to refer to her in conversation as my "Metal Queen." Sadly, I've been kind of disappointed in her two most recent studio albums, Calling The Wild and Fight. While each album had some very good music, the good stuff was interspersed with some very weak material. The songwriting was simply not there.

You don't have to worry about that with Warrior Soul. The album has the best mix of songwriting since Doro's monstrously great CD Love Me In Black and instantly goes into the mix for the title of Best Doro CD.

I'm proud, and a bit surprised nonetheless, to declare this CD as one that Doro fans have been waiting for (whether they knew it or not).

Did You Know?

Doro's drummer Johnny Dee formerly played with glam rockers Britny Fox.

The limited edition version of Warrior Soul contains two bonus tracks, "Angels In The Dark" and "1999".

The US fan club site for Doro Pesch is http://www.dororocks.com

RATING: 5 out of 5